


You're Only Now Just Starting to Figure it Out

by BumBum



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Nicole needs a friend, basically Nicole is super human, canon non-compliant after around the end of 209
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 12:23:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11736966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BumBum/pseuds/BumBum
Summary: Nicole Haught is not entirely human. She's strong, she's intuitive, she's protective to a fault. These characteristics are the reason she chose her career path and her duty station at Purgatory. They are the driving force of her actions, even her mistakes. But maybe there's more to all of that than she's realized yet. Maybe the protective instinct and allure to the supernatural which landed her in Purgatory as a Sheriff's deputy speak to something much bigger than simply answering the call of duty.Amidst all the trials and tribulations she's endured over the past year, she's also stumbling over the realization that she is incredibly lonely.What happens when a stranger crashes into her life like an unconventional answer to her most desperate prayers and reveals to her a truth that maybe she's known all along?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> That's right, guys, gals, and nb pals! Nicole Haught gets a friend and super powers!  
> The first two chapters are set up for the story. It's pretty much compliant with all of WE up to about the end of 209.   
> I'll be introducing an original character that I'm very fond of later on.  
> I just love Nicole's character very much, and I can see a story line like this playing out with her. I think she deserves a friend and some understanding and some super powers and some overall happiness.   
> Wayhaught is endgame. I will love them til the day I die.  
> This is just me imagining Nicole's story a little differently.   
> First chapters are pretty angsty.

When somebody positively consumes you, you've made yourself your most vulnerable. You've given that person the key to unlocking the happiest, fullest you've ever felt. You've also surrendered to them the ability to drive you mad. Your emotions revolve around them like they are your sun. Those emotions almost aren't yours anymore. Every thought, every decision you make throughout the day relies on them. You have willingly relinquished control to them. 

Nicole responds to every minor call for service that comes through dispatch just to leave the station. Nicole refrains from leaving her desk, the computer at which now faces decidedly away from the BBD office, to refill her coffee when she knows Waverly is in the breakroom. Unless it is absolutely required by their jobs, Nicole avoids Waverly at all costs. When they are around each other, an outsider looking in would not be able to discern they know each other at all, much less that they are madly in love. 

It has been four days since Nicole's indiscretion lead to the monumental stand-off between the two. When the information package containing the DNA test results of one Waverly Earp first hit her desk early four mornings ago, Nicole had to see what was inside. She was rarely impulsive. But this was different. No mental debate, no ethics discussion, no thought at all. Nicole opened the envelope. 

Of course she did. Whatever plagued Waverly was also a plague to her. The heart break, the total devastation on Waverly's face when she first had entrusted Nicole with her secret doubts of her lineage was an image that wrecked Nicole. Sitting with her on her dead sister's bed in the house where she watched her living sister shoot and kill her abusive father as a child, Nicole was the first to hear her out. She was the first to know the panic inside her as she, the Earp who dedicated her life to research of the curse and the heritage, might not even belong. The weight of being the Earp who actually cared, the Earp who suffered the most and who suffered it quietly, and then learning that the only thing fueling her life might not even belong to her, that weight was inconceivably heavily. And that weight was not lost on Nicole. So she tried to dismiss those fears. After all, it was Revenant who planted them. A Revenant who would want to tear away at the Earps. Reason said those fears were ungrounded, at least to Nicole. 

But the pain on Waverly's face... She truly believed she wasn't an Earp. 

Nicole would see to it that those fears were laid to rest. 

Between the time Nicole had made that promise to herself and to Waverly and the time the DNA test results came in, so much more had happened to Waverly. Mikshun had happened to Waverly casting even more doubts. The widows. The Gardners. The baby. If she could bear just one burden for the woman she loved, she would. 

So there was no question that she would open the package. 

When she did, it was instant regret. Aside from all Waverly's fears being quite accurate, Nicole knew immediately she had acted out of line. She would have to come clean, and, worst of all, she would have to be the one to deliver the identity shattering news.   
Nicole hid the results, mistake number two, and racked her brain for a plan. She would of course own up to everything, but when is a good time to tell the love of your life something so impossibly bad? When is a good time to present the news to the Earpiest Earp of them all that she isn't an Earp by blood? That she's spent her life cursed by a   
heritage that isn't hers? 

C'mon Haught, there's no good time for that. 

Well, there could have been a better time and a better place and a better overall situation than the one that played out in Shorty's later that afternoon. 

It has been four days. The first day, Nicole flooded Waverly's phone with apologies and pleas for at least a conversation. The second, more sober day was a well composed apology, an offer of space, and a promise that she would be there when Waverly was ready to talk. The third day was silence. Today was absolute humiliation at work with spiteful exchanges on both sides. 

Waverly had been cruel. Nicole drove home once relieved from duty thinking she had deserved that. 

She stomped the snow from her boots weakly before entering her apartment to wallow. It was dark outside already. The apartment would have been dark inside too if Nicole wasn't in the habit of leaving the TV on for Calamity Jane when she left for work. She flipped on the kitchen light and shook the cat food bag on the counter to rouse the cat's attention. 

Cat being fed, Nicole fell hard under the realization that all her obligations were basically met. 

She goes to work, serves her community to the best of her ability, cares for Calamity, and that's it. This was her life. It sounds a lot sadder now than it did about year ago when she was happy with her interesting, new duty station. But that is what happens, after all, when you let someone consume you. The good doesn't feel good anymore because you gave that away. And the bad... It's very bad. She felt like she deserved this. 

She knew she made a mistake. Not a small one either. She also knew why she did it. She also knew she had every intention of this playing out a little differently.   
But why was this effecting her so hard? Nicole was strong. She always had been. A girl had never gotten under her skin like this. Maybe, Nicole thought as she waited for her shower to start spewing hot water rather than temperatures matching the outside, just maybe she fell too hard too fast for Waverly Earp. Maybe, just maybe this had all been a mistake. 

Utility belt slung across the bathroom counter and uniform tossed on her bed, Nicole stood in the stream of finally warm water reexamining every aspect of the past year that landed her in this precise moment. 

Nicole has always been intuitive. Some people call it a gut feeling. Hers has never failed her. When she chose to accept the job at Purgatory, it wasn't the gruff Sheriff's words on his handwritten offer that drew her in. It was the feeling deep inside her and the goosebumps on her arms when she opened that letter. She'd sifted through a few letters offering her positions in metropolitan areas that were sure to guarantee her opportunity for growth following her graduation from the academy. Any one of them would have made more sense for a young cop wanting a full career and any semblance of a social life. But Purgatory sent a chill through her. She knew that's where she was going. 

And when she got here, she knew this place was more than local drunks and silly superstitions. She knew something way out of the ordinary was in the very air of the place.   
And she knew, when she first laid eyes on Waverly that this girl was special. She knew she had to meet her. Worst of all, despite knowing all the risks involved intimately, she knew she had to let this girl know she was interested. 

She knew Waverly was possessed before she knew she was possessed. Just like she knew Purgatory was a supernatural battleground before she knew anything was going on. Or like she knew, somehow, Wynonna Earp was the center of everything making this town the crazy place it was. Intuition. Going with her gut. It had never failed her before, so why was everything going wrong now? 

Nicole dressed herself in sweats and made her way to the kitchen. She hadn't eaten since noon, and even that wasn't much. Her appetite had disappeared with her sense of direction in the past four days. While she waited for ramen to cook in the microwave, she retrieved the half empty bottle of whiskey from the freezer. Or half full. When you're replaying in your head mean things your girlfriend says while you're fighting, maybe it's best to see something as half full. 

Either way, within an hour, the bottle was more on the empty side than before. And Nicole picked up her phone to do what even the strongest of lesbians mid-fight cannot resist sometimes: we text our girlfriends sorry in multiple variations. 

In five minutes, her phone chimed to Nicole's genuine surprise. It was Waverly. But it was not a message Nicole had hoped for. 

She crashed into her bed, the effects of the alcohol not potent enough to cancel out the effect of Waverly's text. She'd lost her altogether. There was no way to interpret that text as anything but another slap in the face and announcement of a separation. A break maybe. A clear desire from Waverly to have nothing to do with her.   
Nicole laid face up in bed completely numb. She couldn't cry, but she was sure a breakdown would be imminent. She could picture herself in the future sobbing helplessly and alone about it, but it wasn't coming tonight. The emotion that overpowered everything else, the intoxication, the guilt, the sorrow, the loss, was a deep sense of loneliness. Like every other struggle she's faced since moving to this town, she was facing it alone. 

She turned to one side so she could peer out the window through one broken section of her blinds. The street was empty and covered in snow. Cold and lonesome like how her heart felt. 

She debated calling her sister, but she couldn't bring herself to retrieve her phone. Just looking at it across the room hurt. Then it occurred to her: I'm drunk. 

Yeah, Nicole had answered her pain from today with drinking. Waverly was probably doing the same thing. She was hurt, so she was drinking. Maybe she wasn't an Earp by blood, but that girl was every bit an embodiment of Earp-like from her near perfect shooting skills to her alcohol tolerance. She was an Earp in pain, so of course she was less than sober right now, which she had every right to be. 

The thought that maybe Waverly didn't mean exactly what she had said, and maybe she wouldn't have sent it if she wasn't drunk calmed Nicole enough to relax. She closed her eyes and knew that if she stayed unmoving, she would fall asleep. What a blessing, a comfort to know she would escape this reality for a few hours.   
Drifting into sleep, the one notion that remained was a desperation for some kind of companionship. She wished above everything else that she had someone to go to in times like these. 

She fell asleep facing the window still, but she didn't see the figure of a person stepping out from the blackness of the tree line.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole is determined to carry on and return to some normalcy, but a simple assignment from BBD goes horribly, horribly wrong.

When Nicole woke an hour and half before her alarm, something felt strange. It wasn't the pounding in the back of her head or the gnawing at her stomach begging for some kind of sustenance. It wasn't that unfortunate, unusual alertness that forbids a person from going back to sleep. It wasn't the recollection of the mistakes that lead to her waking without Waverly. 

It was as if she was being watched. 

Nicole dismissed the feeling, stretching and pulling herself out of bed. Her gut feelings had guided her into this mess, so maybe it was time to start ignoring them. 

She checked her phone. No new messages. 

She brewed a pot of coffee and cooked a real breakfast. 

She turned on the news and determined that today she would take back some of what she lost when she let Waverly consume her. She would get back to her old, confident self. She would go to work, be the best cop she could be, and extend no extra effort in either acknowledging or avoiding Waverly Earp. No more apologies. No more awkwardness. 

She would remain respectful, of course, but that meant respecting Waverly's expressed wishes for distance. 

Arriving at the station, Nicole found that the task at hand might be easier than she thought. No Earps were present this morning, and BBD was manned only by Jeremy and Dolls. 

She relieved the overnight staff, and day shift officers reported for duty. Morning meeting came and went, and all of Purgatory's finest went about their business on patrol, at the jail, one at the courthouse, and a few manning the station. It was business as usual. It was the environment Nicole wanted. She even found herself smiling. 

Nicole grabbed her overcoat and ball cap, about to head to her cruiser for patrol when Dolls emerged from the office, bodily blocking her movement down the hall. The tall and powerfully built man was a master of hiding his expressions. If bearing was ever to be personified, it was Deputy Marshal Dolls. But this morning, a quizzical look was very evident on his face as he regarded Nicole. 

"Good morning Deputy Marshal," Nicole said unshaken by his appearance. 

"What's your work load look like today, Haught?" He asked simply, strange expression never leaving his face. 

"Light. I'm patrolling today. Nothing to follow up from night shift," she answered. 

"I would like you to pay a visit to the trailer park this morning. We had reports yesterday of what appeared to be occult activity. A small group performing chants around a burn barrel. It may be nothing, but with our Widows tearing the town apart looking for a third seal, we can't overlook a single thing." 

"I'll head over, take a look, talk to anyone still hanging out down there. I'll let you know what I find." 

Dolls cleared his throat and looked around. 

"Please. Take Jeremy with you," he practically whispered. 

Nicole raised an eyebrow. 

"Please. I like the guy. He's invaluable to our operations. But he's driving me crazy. Every two minutes he's asking for another task. Asking to help out. Asking about Wynonna. I need an hour alone." 

For the first time, it struck Nicole that her unstable relationship status may not be unique to only her around here. She knew that Wynonna and Doc had planned some quality time together last night. Somewhere past the muscles and the fire breathing and the stoic face, Dolls had to be hurting just a little too. The man had been through his share of hell to come back to the woman consuming him being pregnant by another man. 

"Yeah. Of course, I'll take him." 

"Thank you." 

Nicole turned to locate the young lab tech when Dolls spoke again. 

"Officer Haught, are you-- " he appraised her questioningly again. "Are you wearing a different perfume?" 

She was caught off guard. 

"Uhm, no? If anything I probably wreak of alcohol, honestly," she answered curiously. 

Dolls looked her up and down again, brow furrowed like he was staring down an unsolvable math problem. 

"Is something wrong?" Nicole asked. She pulled up the top of the front of her shirt over her nose and sniffed inside. Definitely whiskey scented, but nothing that unusual. In fact, the alcohol was mostly drowned out by the smell of fresh deodorant. 

"It's nothing," he shook his head and offered a half grin. "I really need some sleep," he said. 

That familiar tension in her core flared. That gut feeling demanded an explanation. Dolls alerted to something that was suddenly nothing? Yeah right. Dolls didn't make mistakes like that. Dolls didn't even smile. Something was out of the norm. Nicole shoved it to the back of her mind, and she went about finding Jeremy. 

Within five minutes of confinement to the cruiser with Jeremy, Nicole understood exactly what it was Dolls needed a break from. Jeremy was smart and wonderful, but the young man's filter was broken or something. 

"So where do you go to, you know, socialize around here?" he asked. 

"Shorty's I guess. If you're asking if there's anything fun to do in this town, the answer is a pretty firm no. Unless you like hiking, but there's an obvious danger doing anything like that alone here." 

"Oh no. The outdoors and I are not friends. I mean like Shorty's but maybe a little more friendly?" 

Nicole rolled her eyes in realization. 

"You're asking me if there's a gay bar." 

"Yes. Or even like a local Magic the Gathering club?" 

"The entire town is a like a nonfiction magic the gathering club. And as for any gay scene around here, not so much. I stick to my couch. They have all my favorite drinks, and the TV plays what I want to watch." 

"Oh I get it," he paused. "It just gets kind of lonely, you know." 

"Believe me, I know." 

"We should open a gay bar." 

"Business is not my strong suit." 

"Well then we should hang out more!" he smiled like he was trying to convince her. Nicole's face betrayed no excitement at the thought. Jeremy was the slightest bit hurt. "Or are you more of loner anyway?" 

Nicole sighed heavily. 

"No, I miss having that sense of just... community. You know? In a big city, it's effortless. Here, not so much. The type of people who choose to live here are just looking for different things. Quiet lives." 

"Yeah. It's just lonely here. I would have never chosen a place like this to work if I had the choice." 

Nicole knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, but Jeremy was really bringing down her previous high by pointing out some truths. 

As they approached the trailer park, that feeling of being watched crept right back into Nicole's head. 

She parked, and the two exited the car, Nicole's dominant hand resting on her side arm. They walked up the gravel road from which all the trailers and crudely pieced together shacks branched off. It appeared that the place, once buzzing with low-lives was abandoned. Further up the road, a burn barrel sat upright. In the snow were an assortment of footprints. Jeremy took pictures before either got close. Bits of fast food wrappers and an impressive amount of empty beer cans lay strewn about. Inside the burn barrel was the fly covered remains of a half-eaten, half-burnt birthday cake. 

"Looks like our chanting suspects were just some kids celebrating a birthday in the privacy of a former demon camp." 

"Nothing too crazy about that," Jeremy said as he snapped some more photos. "I once had to help BBD examine evidence from a scene suspected to be an explosion to cover up animal and human sacrifice... It was just a some drunk kids trying to fry chicken in a house that had a gas leak. Very sad. Dead chicken and frat boy everywhere." 

Nicole grimaced. The trip was a bust, but that's how investigation goes sometimes. Sometimes there really is nothing to write home about, and that, in reality, should be a good thing. 

Demon activity in the trailer park or not, something still felt off. Nicole couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on her. But that didn't make her want to leave any sooner. She left Jeremy with his camera to explore toward the tree line. Something was there, she knew it. 

The sound of something crashing from inside a trailer behind her ripped her from her trance. Then came a bone chilling growl. 

Nicole dashed toward Jeremy while she drew her gun. She pushed him down roughly behind the burn barrel for cover just before a hulking monster of a man with red Revenant eyes kicked down the door of the trailer. 

He roared mightily causing every bird that had been hiding in the cold treetops nearby to flee loudly. Nicole was exposed. Everything had happened in an instant. This Revenant was going to end her. She opened fire. Each of her rounds hit their mark, but the thing hardly seemed phased by them. 

"Jeremy! Call for help!" 

She would fight just long enough for him to get to safety, but she would surely die today. 

The Revenant charged at her, and all she could do was focus in on where she could throw herself at him to buy Jeremy the most time. Where she could shoot that would slow him down. He was huge. The thing would have dwarfed even Dolls. 

Time seemed to stop. Nicole Haught stood straight and took aim. She was going to die, and if that was how today would go, then, goddammit, she would die a hero in a powerful stance. Jeremy would escape. Wynonna would track down this giant and blast him back to hell. 

Nicole wondered if Wynonna would be extra ferocious in a battle to avenger her. Nicole wondered if Waverly would be the tiniest bit relieved when she was gone. 

No, Waverly would be devastated. This would all be one more unfairly heavy burden for the girl to have to bear. In what she thought were the last fleeting seconds of her life, Nicole saw the giant approaching her at full speed. She concentrated on Waverly. Her face. When it was crushed, when it was overjoyed, when it was peaceful. She could see her now, in a foggy, dream-like view that made her begin to think she was actually already dead. She could see her at the bar sharing drinks with the new girl, Rosita. She was smiling a sad, sweet smile. Defeated but reinforced. Broken but stronger. Resolute. She could hear them talking. Rosita was convincing Waverly to go see Nicole. Waverly was in this very moment determining to go seek her out and fix what had become of them. And Nicole was in this very moment looking her death in the face. 

The sadness overwhelmed Nicole, and the click of an empty chamber trying to fire told her this was indeed the end. So she stood in pure acceptance forcing her mind to think only of Waverly and not of how bad it might hurt to be mangled by these hands she was now in reach of. 

She was unaware of the person behind her until she was shoved face first into the snow only feet away from the Revenant. 

She looked up in time to watch somebody, or something, pounce onto the Revenant's chest, pushing him backward. 

The thing had the Revenant on the ground and, within seconds, the sickly sound of a thick neck cracking followed by a lifeless thud permeated the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Any and all feedback is welcome and appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole's life has been saved, but by who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, it's been super cool reading feedback as it's come in. I'm so happy people are liking what I'm making here. Very, very cool. Thank you so much for the love!
> 
> Now, this is where I'm introducing an original character. If that's not something you're into when you're looking for some reading material, this may not be the fic for you. 
> 
> Something I really loved about S1 was how Wynonna and Waverly were interesting and perfect foils for each other in a lot of ways. Our new character is based pretty heavily on that same idea of being the reverse side of the same coin for Nicole. We'll see more of that come out later on. By the way, the more I'm writing, the more I'm loving this story that's coming together. There's so much I'm planning on incorporating in this, so I'm thinking this is going to end up being a lot of chapters.
> 
> But first, what's Waverly been up to?

Waverly entered the cop shop miserably. Early this morning she had determined she had had enough of the fighting and the grudges. With the help of Rosita, she had seen the error in her own ways. She had reacted horribly to Nicole's mistake. Sure, she had a right to be mad about her girlfriend's brief episode of deception, but the cutting remarks and flat out cruel text message from last night was overboard. Then, there was the kiss. 

Ugh. 

She hadn't even thought about how to address that yet. Of course it didn't mean a thing to either parties involved. It was a moment of tension and comfort and much needed support and warmth. But neither Waverly nor Rosita were in any way interested in each other. Not like that. Not romantically. Yeah it was great for Waverly to feel intellectually stimulated by an equally brilliant mind. But still the issue that remains is treacherous territory. Is that what happens when Waverly lets go for a moment? She presents a vague suggestion of a break up then kisses whoever happens to be around? No, that was a first for her. Then again, feeling understood the way Rosita had made her feel understood was a first as well. She complimented Waverly's characteristics in a way Wynonna or Nicole couldn't. She wouldn't say that Rosita's smarts were attractive to her. Intelligence is sexy, sure. But that wasn't the prevalent feeling ruling the moment in which they kissed. Not attraction. More like equality. Belonging. Like when you walk into your first class after changing majors, and you just know you fit. It's a relief and a peace and a comfort. Waverly loved Rosita as in a platonic match made in heaven. They were on the same wave length about things Waverly hadn’t met an equal in. 

Also, she could not deny the effects of her emotions having been running wild with the events of the past year. A major relationship being ended. Yes, it was a shitty relationship. But it was a constant. It was some tiny piece of normalcy in her very much abnormal world. Her sister's return. The battle to end the curse. The death of her father figure. Her other sister's return. Then her death. Grappling with the prospect that she had met her soulmate in such a tumultuous time. Then the identity crisis of her own heritage. Additionally the doubts and violation of being possessed. So much had been shaking her up deep inside. It shouldn't have really surprised her that her emotions weren't quite in check anymore. Add to that some alcohol and a comforting friend... 

Ugh. 

She hated that she had slipped like that. 

No, it wasn't the end of the world. It wasn't an ultimate betrayal. But she was repulsed looking back at it. It wasn't defensible really, but it was an honest, human slip. Maybe not totally unlike Nicole's attempt to delay her mail delivery. Dammit, and she had given Nicole absolute hell. She surely deserved the same treatment now. 

Nonetheless, Waverly was certain in two things: Nicole loved her, and she loved Nicole back. They were going to navigate these rough waters together. 

That is, if she could find the Officer anywhere. 

She had left Shorty's on a mission to make this thing right. But she couldn't even get a text back from Nicole. Three calls went straight to voicemail, so Waverly assumed Nicole was at work. When she pulled up to the station, though, her cruiser wasn't there. Nicole rarely patrolled anymore, so Waverly was stumped. 

"Hey, Dolls, have you seen--" Waverly knocked and peaked her head inside the BBD office to see the Deputy Marshall with his finger to his lips indicating a silent request for quiet. 

He was listening intently to what sounded like Jeremy on the radio. Dolls motioned for Waverly to come in and take a seat. 

"I'm saying this Revenant was huge. Probably like seven foot tall! And she just jumped on him!" Waverly raised on eyebrow and looked to a distracted, equally puzzled Dolls for an explanation. 

"Okay, okay. Chetri, where is she now?" 

"Officer Haught has her detained. She's bringing her to the car now. Wow, you know, she's really kinda small." 

"Why is she detained?" 

"Oh, uhh. Actually, I don't know. After the explosion, she picked up Officer Haught and just kind of smiled real big. It looked like she said something to her that really pissed off Haught. It was weird though, she didn't fight it at all. After what she did to the big guy, she definitely could have fought off Haught." 

Dolls and Waverly looked at each other confused. 

"Oh no," Jeremy sighed over the radio. 

"What?" 

"Oh yeah, the ladies got gooed. Bad." 

 

The mystery ninja hopped gracefully away from the body of the giant Revenant and toward Nicole as the redhead stood up and regarded her in shock. 

She was shorter, maybe five and half foot tall in those heavy boots she wore and clothed in what looked like military grade cold weather gear. With her face obscured with goggles and a beanie and a bandana, the only hint that the stranger was female came when she spoke. 

Not even the slightest bit out of breath, she pulled down her bandana and said, "C'mon Haught. We gotta get moving. He won't be down for very long." 

The stranger was beaming at her, and Nicole was dumbstruck. 

Jeremy, who had run faster than he had in his life to the cruiser, pulled up abruptly in front of the women. 

"How- how do you know my name? Who are you?" Nicole stammered. 

"Ricter. Call me Ricter," she said, extending a hand. 

On queue, as if Nicole wasn't already thoroughly overwhelmed with the events of the past ten minutes, the sound of people running caused both women to turn attention simultaneously to the trailer the monster had emerged from. Nicole counted five individuals running out the back and into the tree line. She made a tactical reload in no time flat, and had her service weapon aimed right where they had disappeared from view. 

"Shit. He was a distraction. We gotta take a look around this trailer, Jeremy!" She shouted at the man in her car. 

"You go ahead. I need to radio Dolls!" He yelled back. 

Ricter was looking at Nicole's grip on her gun. 

"That was good. Quick reload there, Haught." 

Nicole briefly considered turning the gun on the stranger. 

"Who are you?" She said not as calmly as she would have liked. 

"Walk and talk, Haught. You wanna check out this dump, right? Clear and investigate?" she said grinning. "I am a mechanic by trade. Kind of a killer by trade to, you could say. I left the Marine Corps a couple years ago. Kind of shell shocked from the whole thing, so I went out on my own for a little bit, hit the road, you know. Met some people. Learned some tricks. Got some answers." 

Nicole stopped walking and opened her mouth to speak. 

Before she could, Ricter had put a finger to Nicole's lips. 

"You're going to have a lot more questions for me, Haught stuff. I promise you that. Right now, you're wondering how I know you. Well, short answer, we all know each other. What does that mean? You and I are one in the same. Same what, you may ask? Hounds." 

Nicole was frozen. Ricter was practically reading her mind. She was talking craziness, and doing it so sincerely. So simply. As if she was explaining something that wasn't life changing. And what's a hound, anyway? 

"Yeah, I can do that. So can you, actually. As for what a hound is--" 

Ricter stopped short. In a millisecond her face turned to sheer panic. 

"Run!" 

Nicole didn't think twice. They both bolted from the porch of the trailer. A deafening boom thundered through the site. Ricter pushed Nicole to the ground yet again, this time shielding her head from the debris that was now flying everywhere with her own small body. When the shrapnel ceased its airborne assault, Ricter looked up to see something else, something worse falling out of the sky. Formations of perfectly shining, sticky looking, snot colored goo. 

"Stay down!" Ricter ordered too late, as Nicole turned her gaze to the sky just in time to get equally covered in the foul-smelling goo that had erupted from the trailer. 

Nicole wiped the slime off her face and onto her sleeve. There was too much to process. Her brain was shutting down. Ricter helped her up off the ground. She was surprisingly strong, though Nicole shouldn't have been amazed by that at this point. 

What would be proper protocol for something like this? Call for back up? Jeremy was on the line with Dolls. The trailer needs to be investigated. The fleeing suspects, that needs to be followed up on. The goo... Ugh the goo. That needs to be taken care of immediately, it was dripping uncomfortably down her clothes in the most undesirable places. And Ricter. What the hell? Nicole was at a total loss. It felt like her brain was crashing. Like she had arrived at the blue screen of death, and nothing was responding the way it should.

The small girl was staring up at her, probably reading her mind or whatever it is she can do. 

Ricter smiled yet again. 

"So high maintenance, Nicole Haught. I come here to answer the cries for help from a young pup, and here I am saving your skin twice in one day." She stretched on her tiptoes to get closer to Nicole's face. Her grin was wide and wicked. "Maybe it's a good thing you screwed up when you did with your girl. Otherwise I wouldn't have been stalking you." 

That's when Nicole altogether snapped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole's savior is kind of an asshole! And what's a hound? What does it mean?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole gains some overall clarity, but the more she learns, the more questions she ends up with.

Nicole figured, as she sat sulking in the back seat of her own patrol car next to Ricter who was handcuffed to the head rest above and behind her, that Ricter had been provoking her on purpose. She let Nicole cuff her when she could have easily overpowered her. 

Arms crossed and staring dead ahead as Jeremy drove them back to the station, Nicole broke the silence of the past few minutes. 

"So, what's a hound?" 

"Hell hound. We guard stuff. Protect things," she said nonchalantly. Nicole was growing annoyed by the girl's attitude. You can't just do that to someone: make an assertion that changes their entire perspective on life and then just leave it at that. 

"You're a hell hound!" Jeremy exclaimed from the driver's seat thrilled. 

"If someone doesn't explain to me what the hell that means in about ten seconds--" 

"It's like a guardian angel, but opposite. Kind of. Instead of protecting humans from the principalities, they protect the supernatural side. There's actually a lot of hell hounds, and they aren't all the same. Some torment humans, some do protect humans instead of serving hell. Some protect certain groups of people trying to serve the supernatural." 

Nicole side eyed Ricter. 

"You want me to believe that suddenly I'm some supernatural guard dog? What does that even mean?" 

Ricter laughed. 

"Suddenly? Haught everything you've done your whole life has lead you where you are today. Serving your purpose totally unknowing. It's kind of incredible, by the way, that you had no clue until like last night. When you start to own it, you start to become it, more and more. You'll learn some skills. You'll expand on things you've been doing without realizing." 

"I don't get it. Serving my purpose? What's my purpose?" 

Ricter shrugged. 

"Probably something to do with the Heir and her family. Yeah, probably serving the Earps. That'd be my guess," she answered casually. 

"So you don't know? How do you even know I am one?" 

"Haught, I can smell you miles away. And feel your pain. See, I'm the Alpha of a pack in the Triangle. We don't really call ourselves that, so you know. A pack? Nah, we're a club. And Alpha? Extra nope. I'm the president. All that means is I've been around the block a few times. With more experience comes better control of your powers. I started my own club after the line was broken by the warring Earp heirs. I saw an increase of new blood in the area, more people stumbling upon special gifts. That tends to happen. Hounds, angels, whatever title you want to claim, our numbers grow geographically as the number of demons grow. So I wanted to create a safe place, a supportive place where new hounds can learn about what they can do. It's a heavy thing to go at alone. But you knew that." 

"Hell hound huh? That doesn't sound like a great thing to call yourself if you're supposed to be a hero. Does this mean I've been some kind of demon all this time?" 

"Don't let that name fool you. After all, it was made up by humans." 

"So I'm not? A human?" 

"Not exactly. No." 

Ricter continued when she saw Nicole's scowl intensify. 

"The world is not black and white, Haught. But it is a balance of good and evil. You've been in Purgatory for some time now, you know demons are everywhere. Evil is everywhere. Of course there exists something to balance that out. And it's certainly not humans. Humans are their own internal balance of good and evil. They mostly are neutral creatures. Hounds, most of us, we're the force that balances out evil in this world. And just like there are good demons, there are bad hounds. Hence the name. If it makes you feel better, you can call yourself an angel." 

"Lots of hell hounds do," Jeremy chimed in. 

Nicole rolled her eyes. 

"I find it hard to believe I'm an angel," she said. 

They had arrived back at the station, and, as they pulled in, Nicole couldn't ignore the bright red Jeep in the parking lot. 

Ricter caught on to the sorrow reentering Nicole's mind. 

"Hey. You've done your best. And now you've got me too. I can help you get a handle on this thing. You can only get stronger from here. As for your girl in there, you and I both know she's your world. She's your purpose in life probably. This thing is going to work out, okay?" 

"Yeah. Right." 

"What I said earlier, I was just trying to get your head out of the sky. You were pretty overwhelmed back there, and you needed to focus on just one thing. Kind of sounds like I manipulated you, but I hope you see anything I'm ever going to do is for your protection. To help you out. You needed something to focus on, an enemy, something." 

"Thanks. That makes a lot of sense, I guess." 

Whatever sense of confidence and relief Nicole had achieved over the talk with Ricter was destroyed as Dolls' voice came over the radio. 

"Chetri, let's go. Sorry for interrupting the moment, but the car and you two hounds need to be decontaminated ASAP." 

"Are you serious? Jeremy, you had the two-way on? On purpose?" 

"Please don't hurt me." 

"Haught, he's following orders. Officer safety is priority," Dolls said. 

"Decontamination?" Ricter questioned. "I don't like the sound of that." 

"Dolls? Who all's listening? Tell me Nedley isn't in there," Nicole pleaded. 

Inside the BBD office Dolls looked at Waverly and Wynonna who had joined shortly after to listen to the new developments from the trailer park and assess who exactly the stranger was that Jeremy had described. 

He spoke into the radio, "Just get inside, Haught. You and Sergeant Ricter." 

On a BBD computer beside the radio, Dolls had pulled up the service file for one Marine Corps Sergeant Jo Ricter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We learned a little bit about what a hound is, sort of, and not much at all about our new friend! Waverly has learned a little bit too..


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More is revealed about the Alpha, and Nicole and Waverly get to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone for the feedback! I know this kind of thing isn't for everybody, but it's really cool seeing that people are reading it at all!   
> The hound/angel thing is something I've toyed around with in my head for awhile. The idea that there's demons begs for a neutralizing force, imo. And I really think it's cool to explore what it could look like if Nicole was in on that supernatural good side. As for our Sgt, she's this presence that will kind of make Nicole be careful what she wishes for. She's a foil for Nicole in the way Wynonna and Waverly were the similar but opposites when we first meet them in S1.  
> Anyway, I'm having an absolute blast with this, and it's so awesome seeing that people have read it!

Dolls turned off the radio and looked to the women around him. 

"What's your call?" 

"Well, she's cute," Wynonna said squinting at the Marine's record and taking a messy bite out of a donut. "And what's the point of having a file if half of it is just going to say 'classified' anyway?" she asked, mouth still full. 

"It means those deployments were covert ops. Which is unusual for an MOS like hers. Means she was very good at something and caught someone's attention early on. She's highly skilled even without hound strength," he said rubbing his eyes. 

"You think she might be a threat? Just how much strength is hound strength? What even is that?" Wynonna asked. 

"It varies. Each hound is different. Each pack is different. I've never actually come in contact with one that calls themselves that rather than an angel of some kind. I think she's telling the truth. If she is an Alpha, Nicole would have actually attracted her to her location. That's how they work. Alphas can sense new bloods in a struggle. They find them, nurture them, and that's how they grow in numbers." 

"I mean, okay, sure. Fun new crazy hell creature to learn about. Love it. But since when is Nicole a hell hound, angel thing?" Wynonna said. 

"I can verify Nicole is definitely a hound," Dolls said remembering the change the redhead's scent earlier that day. 

Waverly remained silent. Hell hound was a term she'd come across in research many times before. She was familiar with the concept, but she also knew that some of them were dangerous. Like their new "friends" at the fire department, hell hounds exist to serve one singular purpose. They will sacrifice almost anything for their goals. Like the Order, they would be willing to sacrifice one for the many. 

Hell hounds were a unique kind of supernatural creature in that they weren't actually a separate entity from humans. The hound, or angel, or protector referred to a spiritual power, not an inhuman biology. A person is born: and they always have certain traits about them. They always are protective. They are the mom friend and the kids who grow up wanting to be EMTs or cops and the people on the news who say things like, "yeah, I didn't know I had it in me but when I saw the baby trapped under the car, I just suddenly was able to pick it up." Some hounds have a clear purpose. Some are born into families who have served other families for generations. They serve a supernatural purpose. Some have served at the Vatican for ages. Many to this day believe the Knights Templar were hounds. Some of them, however, are content with the general purpose of protecting other people. Many of them join the military or emergency services and thrive in that environment because they have this uncanny strength in desperate situations or are able to make tough calls in the heat of combat. Some of the greatest heroes of all time have been hell hounds, and some of them never even knew it. 

The only time a person learns about a gift like that is when they are introduced to idea by, typically, another hound. And that usually happens when the new blood cries out for help. 

Waverly wanted to leave. She wanted to research more. It made sense that a hound would be out there to serve the Earp line, but she'd never seen evidence that the Earp line had an angel at all. 

Commotion in the hallway caught the attention of all three of them in the office and kept Waverly from leaving. Nicole was practically dragging Ricter, who did seem to be putting up a real fight, down the hall behind Jeremy who rushed into the BBD office. 

"Uhh I think we're gunna need back up." 

"Okay, okay, you got real strong real fast, Haught," Ricter let out a nervous laugh. "I uh.. I don't want to do this. I don't really need to do this. OW!" 

"Just stand up, stop being an asshole about it. It's a shower. You could use one." 

Nicole managed to force the smaller girl into the office. She wasn't happy to see that Dolls was joined by Wynonna and Waverly, but she was grateful that maybe she could get some help. 

 

The Earp sisters had helped to barricade Ricter in the decontamination room. She wasn't pleased with her situation, but she was persuaded to undress. Wynonna may or may not have used a certain big ass gun to do the persuading. 

"Don't you think this is mildly inappropriate? We haven't even met," she said towards the two armed women in the doorway. 

"I'm Ricter," she said peeling off her layers of clothes. "I'm 24. Leo. Turn ons are walks on the beach and a well-stocked bar. Turn offs," she added a little more loudly and more directed to Nicole, "Are being naked around perfect strangers and having guns drawn on me in reward for saving a cop. And also that smell? What is that smell? Turnips? Not a fan." 

"You're 24?" Nicole asked in honest surprise. 

Ricter chuckled harshly. "You and I, Haught, we've taken very different paths to achieve the same end." 

Nicole was already in the shower and still hadn't said a word to Waverly. Again, not the ideal situation she was waiting for. But, again, she wondered if one would ever arise. There were a million things on her mind, but Waverly as at the forefront of all of it. She remembered what she had seen when she thought she was dying. She knew it was real. Maybe seeing stuff like that was, like, her new powers. Like how Ricter could read her mind. 

Ricter was stalling, but the cold as she got less clothed encouraged her to just finish stripping and get in the hot shower. 

She moved quickly now, but Waverly and Wynonna saw what she might have been wanting to hide. Long, thick scars decorated her hip and down her leg. Waverly recognized what it meant: she'd had a hip replacement. More scars across her back, very different in size and shape revealed that this girl had endured some real pain in her life. 

"What made you susceptible to Black Badge, though?" Ricter asked. "They're vile." 

"Necessary evil," Wynonna responded before Nicole. 

Ricter turned her attention to Wynonna. 

"Blackmail, huh? Somebody tried to strike a deal maybe? Told you that you needed help?" 

"I mean, that's the short version of the story I guess," Wynonna said. 

"Everybody needs help. Sometimes we even need help seeing that everything we've ever really needed was already at our fingertips." 

The room fell quiet as her words sunk in for everybody. Nicole wondered if she had been talking directly to her. Did she really have everything she needed? She would have died today. And if she hadn't she would have probably very soon started applying for positions away from Purgatory. 

Jeremy peaked his head in after several uncomfortably wordless minutes. 

"Okay, Sergeant, Officer Haught, you should be done." 

"Don't look at me," Nicole said. 

"Please, this is still more privacy than we got in boot camp," Ricter said. 

"I'm bringing in clothes," Jeremy continued, eyes firmly shut. "Also, uh Sergeant, I've got some questions for you, uhm, about your medication? Since you don't have any in your effects, we do have someone who can duplicate it for you." 

"Fine, okay," Ricter said. 

Nicole was noticing Ricter's tone could change at the drop of a hat. She's brutally asshole-ish one second then dropping solid wisdom the next. She wasn't sure this was exactly what she had in mind when she wished she wasn't alone in the world. 

Nicole dressed quickly in the spare uniform she kept in her locker. Ricter donned what looked to be Jeremy's own clothing. The smaller girl was stocky in an imposing way with evident muscles. Not one part of her body didn't have some scarring, but her left hip was certainly the most deeply damaged. 

"So what kind of mechanic were you?" Nicole asked when Ricter caught her staring. 

"Helicopters. Went from mech to air crew. But being a mech doesn't help a whole lot when you're shot out of the sky." 

"Why did you go military?" 

"The same reason you went cop, I guess. Except I couldn't get into college. The military was my only option. I was a kid. I was homeless. Uncle Sam might be an imperialist, but he fed me, housed me, paid me. Life was better in the desert than I'd ever had it stateside." 

"And you felt like it was, you know, the right thing?" 

"You know that feeling you get when you make a choice? You're stomach is tight deep, deep down, and it feels like there's a little voice telling you to proceed? You know what I'm talking about. The thing that brought you here instead of North. Landed you right in the Triangle. The thing that gnawed at you when BBD took over your job. I had it the whole time." 

"Hey, weirdos. Maybe let's move this somewhere else?" Wynonna said. "Like the office that doesn't smell like old casserole?" 

 

Waverly and Nicole sat facing each other at the desk in the BBD office. Jeremy had escorted Ricter to Rosita's domain under Shorty's. Wynonna left saying she had to go to the airport, although Waverly had a strong suspicion that was code for more nesting. Waverly and Nicole had a lot to discuss, but they sat silently for just a moment. 

"Okay, I'll start," Nicole said. "I'm so sorry, Waverly. I wasn't thinking, and I know it was so wrong of me to open your results. And then lie! I can't even believe I did that. I wanted to wait for a better time. I don't know. It's so stupid looking back. And I am so sorry." 

Waverly reached her hands across the desk to hold onto Nicole's. 

"I know baby. I know. I was mad. I said things I shouldn't have. Did things..." She let go of her hands. "I'm the reason you were in so much pain that now this is happening. God, and you almost died today. I almost lost you before I could even--" 

Waverly broke down. Nicole reached back to hold her girlfriend's hands. 

"Hey. It's gunna be okay. Angels, demons, Revenants, whatever. We're going to be okay. I love you." 

"I love you, Nicole. I love you," Waverly said between sobs. 

Nicole left her seat and came around to Waverly's side of the desk. She held her close and knew in this moment that this was where she belonged. Whether Nicole was human or not, Waverly Earp was her purpose. 

They stayed unmoving until Dolls entered the office. 

"Nedley wants a report. And so do I. It's time to regroup and investigate the trailer. Jeremy is identifying what caused the explosion thanks to the samples you and your friend provided." 

Nicole pulled herself away from Waverly the slightest bit to look up at Dolls. 

"I don't know if she's my friend. She's kind of a dick." 

"She's a Marine. We share that quality. Now that she's made an impression, she'll open up." 

Nicole didn't seem excited for that to happen. Waverly remembered when she and Wynonna had first encountered Dolls and felt the same way. 

"Just do this one thing for me, Haught. As you discover what you're capable of, keep me updated. Okay?" 

"Okay. Will do." 

"Sometime this week, I'd like you to submit to a strength test. I'll monitor your physicality as this thing progresses." 

"Okay," Nicole seemed unsure. Yeah, she was athletic. Strong even. But she never considered herself to be particularly outstanding in the gym. 

"What do you think about her, Dolls, honestly?" 

Dolls sighed. 

"I think she's the real deal. I've met a lot of hounds, especially coming from the military into more government work. A lot of them are grandstanders. They talk a big game, call themselves guardians of something holy, but don't perform. If Sergeant Ricter took down that Revenant like Jeremy said she did, she's got my attention." 

Nicole had really been trying to forget about the incident at the trailer park. There was a lot to dissect. That Revenant, for one. Revs weren't ever totally immune to emptying a clip, not as far as she knew. 

"And Nicole, you've got our support. Okay?" 

Nicole really felt like he meant it too. He must know now that she had been truly lonely over the past few weeks in order to summon something like Ricter. 

"Thank you. I've been needing that I guess," she said. 

"Yeah. Well," he cleared his throat. "Jeremy will be back with Sergeant Ricter. He's been tasked with the decontamination of your car. I'll keep Nedley at bay for now, but we need reports by close of business." 

Nicole exhaled. 

"Roger that, Deputy Marshall." 

Dolls smiled. 

"There's a fresh pot of coffee," he added. 

 

Nicole stayed in the BBD office to work on the reports, taking whatever cover from Nedley she could, just for today. Reliving the experience was draining, but she couldn't leave out a single detail of the expedition to the trailer park. 

"We should avoid the place altogether, honestly," Nicole said about site. "Wynonna and Doc went to investigate. Gooed. I went to investigate. Gooed. We should be required to wear hazmat suits when going in at the very least. Maybe I'll bring that up to Dolls. Write up an SOP." 

Nicole was refilling her coffee for the third time. Waverly had stayed with her to continue her research on the hound subject as they related to the Earps of the past. At least that's the rational she'd expressed. She knew she had some more to come clean about to Nicole. 

"I saw something," Nicole started as she took her seat to resume writing. "At the park, when I was shooting at the Revenant. When I really thought I wasn't going to make it out, I saw you. I focused really hard. And it was like I was beside you watching. You were at Shorty's, and you were going to come for me. I was so completely at peace because I knew, I finally knew, that we were going to be okay. And I think it was--" 

Nicole stopped talking. An overwhelming sense of shame was emitting from Waverly. Nicole looked to the other girl. 

"You saw me and Rosita?" 

The tone in Waverly's voice, the remorse she was feeling, it was all so strong, and suddenly other imagery flooded Nicole's head. Again, it felt like she was in the scene. Waverly, Rosita, champagne, anger, misunderstanding, warmth. Before it all culminated into a clear picture, Waverly said it. 

"I kissed her! I kissed Rosita. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't think I was thinking--" 

"Waverly! Baby, calm down!" 

It was like Nicole was able to see it in Waverly's mind: the torment she was feeling, the pure disgust at herself. 

"I was so horrible to you, and then I kissed her!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's Nicole going to take this new development? These girls have got so much to deal with!  
> Wonder if any other hounds have ever served the Earp line?

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing for a few years, but this is my first fan fiction. All mistakes are my own, feel free to point them out. Please leave me criticisms if you feel the need to. I would love any feedback.  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
